Settling in...

I’ve survived three weeks now and heading into the 4^th. My first weekend, Chris, his wife Gilly and daughter Sally had me stay at their place for the weekend near Christchurch. He used to be the vet in Little River for 20 years, which is the main ‘town’ on a peninsula near Christchurch. In the states we have 4-H for kids to show animals they have raised, here they have the A&P shows, the Agricultural and Pastoral Association. Little River was having their show that weekend and since Chris and his family took me to join the local party. It was just like the community fairs at home, we couldn’t walk 20 yards without someone talking to us and telling stories about their kids, families, and farms. BUT we were in the middle of some beautiful mountains on a wet and foggy day. They kept apologizing for the weather, but misty mountains have always kept my attention. PLUS I had my ‘Dry as a Bone’ coat to keep me dry. Its what we would call an oil slicker. Mostly on western folks, riding horses on the range. But here, everyone wears them. Its normal. The one I was borrowing was about 6 sizes too big but hey.

The best part of the day was walking around with beers from the boot of the car, telling jokes and stories with the locals. We walked over to the sheep judging, 15 or so breeds of sheep, a white board with lots of lines and tally marks and some very serious and tense looking farmers. The results came in and there was cheering and congratulations and then it was off to the beer tent. We grabbed another beer, bought some fudge and some lollies (gummy candy) and went to watch the speed shearing contest. I can honestly say I didn’t think it was possible for an entire sheep to be

shorn in 33 seconds. The rest of the afternoon was drinking the Kiwi beer of choice, Speights, and watching the shearing and the Team Shearing. The team shearing involved 4 people. The first person had to chug a beer that someone else was pouring in their mouth while tapping his head and rubbing his tummy, when the beer was empty the beer pourer had to eat a raw potato. When the potato was gone, the next person had to turn the hand crank on the motor that ran the shears that the fourth person was using the shear the sheep. Lots and lots of laughs!! I was being propositioned all day to get on a team but I was able to stay out of it.

The next day Gilly and Sally took me to Christchurch and showed me the art center. Downtown whenever the weather is good there are booths of crafters and international foods galore. We walked around the shops and sampled some cuisine. The International Buskers Festival was on so every major corner and square had a different street act or musician showing their talents. The

weather was still a bit damp and threatening more so after a few coffees and our fill of art we went into a restaurant for a drink. I had an alcoholic gingerbeer, quite tastey. Gilly and Sally then presented me with a pounamu stone. Pounamu stone, also known as jade, but if found in New Zealand its pounamu. The indigenous people here, the Maori people, have stone and bone carvers that make pendants and art. You should not purchase yourself a pounamu stone, it brings very bad luck. Now when most people tell me this its an ok, whatever. But this was different; it was a very serious matter. You are GIVEN a pounamu stone, and usually the carver is asked to pick out the

piece for the wearer. If you find one, you do NOT wear it. Maybe I just like superstitious stories but for some reason it seemed real. They have different and special meanings depending on if you are of Maori heritage or not. During a walk through a Maori carvers shop, Gilly had decided to go back and ask the carver to pick out a stone for me. It is called roimata (tear drop) and means infinity and friendship. Gilly told him of my travels and my work as a vet and picked it out to protect me on my travels and to make good and lasting friendships. I felt very honored by the gift. I had only known these people a week but they were already becoming fast friends.

Cow and farm stuff is ahead if you feel the need to skip ahead.

Now comes the quick explanation of the dairy industry in New Zealand, of which I’m still learning a great deal every day so bear with me. Dairying here is seasonal meaning they generally calve once a year in the spring, August 1^st to the end of September. Which means everything else happens seasonally, calvings, fresh cow problems, mating(breeding), pregnancy testing, then dry off. The farms here are between 250-1500 cows, the average being about 800. So fairly large and pretty much all pasture fed, with little supplementation except for vitamins, minerals, and selenium that

goes through the water system or long acting boluses. Currently we’re in the preg testing phase. So every morning around 3:30-5:30am the scanners (ultrasounders) and armers (manual palpators) get up and head to the dairy sheds to preg test in the rotary parlors during milking. Now, for the non dairy farm oriented people, this means you have about 15sec to determine if a cow is pregnant or not. Thankfully we don’t fully arm every cow, (ouch!) the scanners have a long plastic piece that fits over the probe and that goes in the cow. The cows are generally 4 to 12 weeks pregnant so as long as they are over 6 weeks pregnant they are put into the early calvings group the rest are the late calvers or inductions. They usually AI breed for 4-8 weeks then stick the bulls in to get everything else. Other then that the sick cow work is pretty minimal, so we sit in the office for most of the late morning and early afternoon. About 2pm the vets that were up early scanning go home since they’ve put in the ‘full day’ and there’s nothing going on. I’ve jumped in to help with other calls to sheep and deer farms so that I can learn about them. I helped de-velvet some deer (basically knock them out and saw the horns off), and brucella test and palpate some rams for breeding soundess. I’ve been pretty happy to be part of the early leaving crowd since sitting around doing NOTHING kills me. It gives me a chance to explore the town and soak up some of the sun that wasn’t in Michigan for our summer or winter.

Ok kids we’re back to the non-cow stuff…

The next weekend found me itching to explore some more. I was looking into a bus to Christchurch since our vehicles are not to be used for personal use, but Jenny who I was staying with offered me her car!! YES! I drove up to Christchurch and booked a hostel for the night and found some free parking for the night. I was determined to find a pub with a session to join. I toured the art center again and watched some more buskers. And since I have a habit of finding them, I met some Irishmen at the hostel I was staying in and we made plans to get dinner and drinks post nap. They had gotten off an 8hr bus journey from Queenstown and were pretty bushed. Well they never woke up so I headed out for dinner on my own and found the pub, ordered the New Zealand variety of fish and chips, and washed it down with a Guinness and a cider for good measure. Alas, the sessions are on Tuesday nights. So until I find myself some wheels, I won’t be attending.

On Sunday, after finding an awesome Swiss café that made a mean omelet with the best cheese I’ve had in a long time, I was determined to find a beach and check out the ocean that’s surrounding my new country. Instead I ended up driving out to the peninsula I had been to the weekend before but from the other side. To quote CW McCall, “…It was hairpin county an' switchback city,” all the way around the peninsula. I stopped at one of the picturesque harbors and had a coffee and read my book for a bit enjoying the amazing sunshine, and getting burnt as a result. I headed further out onto the peninsula, and found a dirt road that headed over to the other side to Little River, the town I had been to the week before and knew how to get home from. Well the dirt road quickly turned into a dirt track with weeds growing in the middle and became narrow enough that the tiny car I was driving felt too big for the road. Up over the mountains I went, saying little prayers every couple of hundred meters at each bend in the road hoping that another car wasn’t coming the other direction because there was nowhere to go but down the cliff. At the top of the mountains I stopped off in an empty lot and took in the scenery, helped some horse trekkers shut a gate they opened, and watched some sheep zig-zag their way down a hill after I gave them a fright. I want to go back and hike those mountains and since Chris knows all the farms I’m sure I’ll find somewhere to stay.

Last week I found a flat to rent finally! Its dubbed a ‘sleep-out’, basically a large motel room on the back of the garage, with a bathroom and small kitchen. One of the dairy clients had just purchased the house, its 3K from the clinic, and the owners furnished it for me and everything! They are nicest people and keep finding excuses to feed me and offer me drinks. Ross milks cows and Barb works in town but is training for a bike race. So we’re already planning some bike rides together and she also wants to swim once it gets dark in the evenings. She used to do endurance horse riding so she’s in much better shape than she’s letting on I think. There’s a great big park in down with ponds and running trails that I’ve been using, the country roads are just flat and straight, may as well get some variety! They also have an extra bike they are letting me borrow. I laid low this weekend and got lost in a book, The Lovely Bones, which I managed to finish in 2 days. It was just one that sucks you in. It was good to just slum around and cook. I did however find the SHORE!! Finally! I live about 8Ks from a rocky beach on the east coast. I headed down on Saturday and Sunday, walked for about an hour and climbed up a cliff and ended up in a sheep paddock. My inner conservationist got the better of me though and I decided I was contributing to the erosion of the cliffs so I climbed back down and continued my walk on the beach. I love the ocean, something about the salty air and the crashing waves. The sound of it is thrilling and mysterious. Sometimes I think I must have been a sailor or fisherman in another life. I haven’t had much opportunity to be ON the ocean for very long but my brief moments were amazing, I’ll have to think of someway a vet can be useful on a boat. Hmm…dolphins, whales? Sea lion females are called cows aren’t they? Could be my next adventure!

So long for now!